Anticorruption prosecutors ask for Senator Catalin Voicu to be re-arrested

Anti-corruption prosecutors have asked the Supreme Court to re-arrest Catalin Voicu for 30 days since the Senator failed to show up in court on April 20. Doing so was an obligation pointed out when he was released in July 2011. The Supreme Court resumed yesterday its debates in the case in which Voicu, Florin Costiniu, Costel Casuneanu and Marius Locic are charged with corruption. Defence lawyers argued that the Senator could not show up in court because he felt ill because of his heart condition. The lawyers also brought medical documents to prove their claims. The anticorruption prosecutor pointed out however that Senator Voicu was seen in Parliament on April 27, at the time when the no-confidence motion was being debated. Moreover, the prosecutor asked for executory sentences against all defendants, namely a sentence of nine years in jail for Florin Costiniu, six years for Florin Costiniu and five years for Locic and Casuneanu. The National Anticorruption Office (DNA) prosecutor asked for two seven-year sentences for intercession and a two-year sentence for forgery for Voicu. The prosecutor pointed out that the case has revealed the seriousness of the manner in which Senator Catalin Voicu was solving the juridical problems of some businessmen. “Catalin Voicu is the exponent of a vast relational system (…) that went as far as subordinating magistrates and police officers to the interests of businessmen or politicians, a fact that seriously affects public society and public institutions. (…) The fact that a Senator and a former judge are concerned should lead to higher sentences in this case,” the prosecutor pointed out in the courtroom. The DNA prosecutor also showed that defendants Voicu, Casuneanu and Costiniu did not even use coded language when talking on the phone when the court made an unfavorable ruling in Casuneanu’s trial. Referring to this situation, the DNA prosecutor pointed out that Senator Voicu and former judge Florin Costiniu were “afraid” when finding out that although they took the EUR 200,000 from businessman Casuneanu the Supreme Court judges they were supposed to influence rejected their alleged intercession. “‘Those two wretches,’ ‘and that 62-year-old tramp’ and ‘that one from Ploiesti who made a deal with the devil,’ are the statements that Catalin Voicu and former magistrate Costiniu made, referring to the panel of judges that unfavorably solved Casuneanu’s request,” the prosecutor pointed out. Senator Voicu was under preventive arrest from March 30, 2010 to July 18, 2011. Catalin Voicu, Florin Costiniu, Costel Casuneanu and Marius Locic were sued for traffic of influence, buying influence and forgery.